The Whole30 Thing – Week Two

The what and why of the Whole30 food challenge is here, but essentially the rules are no sugar, alcohol, grains, legumes, dairy, or certain additives (carrageenan, MSG, sulfites) for a 30 days.

How I Feel

I’m told most people quit on day eleven. That was yesterday.

I’ve had a few “I’m so over this” moments” and some cravings this week, but they were mostly idle thoughts and I was able to easily enough brush them aside.

The hardest part of the week was hanging out with my niece and nephew. There are some weird habits people can get into around kids — they aren’t eating their dinner so there is leftover food on their plates that’s easy to nab, or they have their little cups of Goldfish crackers and it’s just so easy to reach in an grab one, or so on.

While feeding my nephew dinner, which he was not eating, I went to do the see-look-it’s-good thing and went to take a bite of one of his taquitos to prove to him that I wasn’t lying, that his good was indeed good. I brought the taquito up to my mouth and even touched my teethe to it before I realized what I was doing. No bite was taken, thus no rules were broken. But, man, it was so close.

The funny thing is: trying to prove to a kid that they should eat a thing by eating it yourself never actually works. They see us eating stuff they don’t like all the time. So, maybe that habit should just be shut down entirely.

Drinks – La CroixMy sister bought a ton of stuff at Costco and shared some of it with me. I split the costs with her on some Aidells sausages, Aidells meat balls, sliced chicken breast, and Larabars.

Total Costs – $104.97

Less than last week by about 20 bucks, but still higher than I would have liked. I could have saved some by not splurging on more luxury type items, such as the macadamia nuts that were $8.99.

What I Ate

In reviewing this week, I’m thinking I may be a little too heavy on the fruit (fruit can end up becoming a replacement for the sugars taken out by this challenge). Technically, I think I’m supposed to be eating more veggies than fruit, but my proportions may be more equal than that.

Meal Prep – Same as last week — with premaking some mason jar salads and pre-bagging portions of nuts and sugar snap peas — minus hard boiling the eggs. Total prep time, including cooking the chicken for the salads, was probably an hour. It felt like less of a burden this week, which was nice.

Breakfasts – Since I started to get sick of the last week’s repetitive breakfasts, I tried something new — sliced up banana with some almond butter drizzled on top. It was a pretty tasty alternative, but I get tired of bananas quickly and I started wanting other things.

I found that doing a complete meal prep all at once it important, because I have a hard time doing meal prep for breakfasts during the middle of the week. Two nights in a row, I forgot to hard boil some eggs like I intended — which meant that I had to fall back on having the banana-almond butter brekkie (that I didn’t really want) or a compliant smoothie (that is okay, but is generally looked down on by Whole30).

Lunches – Pretty much the same as last week, with mason jar salads and dinner leftovers.

Dinners – My most complicated meal of the week was also my least favorite. It wasn’t the salmon’s fault (somehow I managed to cook it okay), rather I think my problem was with the sides. The combination of brussel sprouts and sweet potatoes — both hearty vegetables — was a little too much in terms of density and flavor. One or the other with a light salad would have been better, although I didn’t think either worked well with the salmon. Next time I’ll probably do asparagus or something instead.

Favorite meal of the week was simpler — Aidell meatballs with sautéed balsamic-glazed brussel sprouts. The brussel sprouts were a pre-shredded pack at Trader Joes and I just followed the instructions on the back (minus the bacon, because I didn’t have any). I just heated up the meatballs while the sprouts were cooking. Good stuff and a quick meal made in a bout 10 minutes (although it did require two pans that needed cleaning).

Aidell meatballs with sautéed balsamic-glazed brussel sprouts.

Other dinners included chicken salad wraps and one of the mason jar salads.

Deserts – Fresh strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, or dried fruit (freeze dried raspberries, which are not as good as the mango version) — so much fruit this week.

Snacks – One serving or more of sugar snap peas, nuts, or Larabars. I try not to eat both nuts and Larabars in the same day (unless I’m working out), mostly because I don’t want to get in the habit of having both for when the challenge is over.

Restaurants – No eating out this week.

Exercise

Ran once over the weekend and was really not feeling it. My muscles were doing some weird spasm-y things, which may be a combination of the tough strength training workout from the previous Wednesday, not being in a running routine, and adapting to new eating patterns. Monday featured another walk with my sister along a reservoir and Wednesday was my usual strength training.

The goal for this weekend is to get two runs in and hopefully a third run mid-week, if I can.

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If you’re also in the midst of a Whole30, let me know how you’re doing in the comments.